About the exhibition

What motivates people to pack their cases and bags – pack up their lives and move to a foreign country? Why do we leave behind all that is known to us – our home, our families and friends, to start anew . . . and what happens then? How does the new country welcome us, how do we integrate and get used to a new set of rules, a different political and judicial system, a country where cars drive on the 'wrong' side of the road – and where a different language is spoken?

And what is our contribution to this “multicultural” society, how much of our culture and our traditions do we introduce to our host nation – and how does it all fit together and become our experience?

It started with a book, Ein bisschen Heimat im Gepäck(ihleo verlag, Husum, 2014), by Sabine Nielsen, telling the life stories of migrants who arrived here between 1935 and 1956 – refugees, displaced or persecuted people, adventurers and those who sought to start a new life. In the meantime, the books is available in English with the title Memories in my Luggage. Even today, their stories resonate in the minds of those recently arrived – or they help those, who feel overwhelmed by a tide of refugees, asylum seekers and new migrants, to a better understanding.

The German photographer Eva Maria Rugel took the portraits of the migrants represented in the book. These portraits were so impressive, it seemed a shame to “hide” them between the pages of a book, and Sabine Nielsen and Eva Maria Rugel decided to work together with Melbourne designer, David Wong, and prepare an exhibition under the auspice of the Australian-German Welfare Society and the sponsorship of Henkell Brothers Australia and with a grant from the Victorian Multicultural Commission.

The exhibition shows photographs and texts, a digital presentation, information about organisations that assist migrants and memorabilia, which highlight the experience of migration. Together with the exhibitions, we offer a series of talks, lectures, forums, musical and culinary events. Watch this space!

Exhibition dates

During 2015, the exhibition Memories in my Luggage traveled around Melbourne and country Victoria: